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502. The Massachusetts Health Plan: Much Pain, Little Gain
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon and Aaron Yelowitz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In 2006, Massachusetts enacted a sweeping health insurance law that mirrors the legislation currently before Congress. After signing the measure, Gov. Mitt Romney (R) wrote, "Every uninsured citizen in Massachusetts will soon have affordable health insurance and the costs of health care will be reduced." But did the legislation achieve these goals? And what other effects has it had? This paper is the first to use Current Population Survey data for 2008 to evaluate the Massachusetts law, and the first to examine its effects on the accuracy of the CPS's uninsured estimates, self-reported health, the extent of "crowd-out" of private insurance for both children and adults, and in-migration of new Massachusetts residents.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
503. Obama's Prescription for Low-Wage Workers: High Implicit Taxes, Higher Premiums
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 01-2010
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- House and Senate Democrats have produced health care legislation whose mandates, subsidies, tax penalties, and health insurance regulations would penalize work and reward Americans who refuse to purchase health insurance. As a result, the legislation could trap many Americans in low-wage jobs and cause even higher health-insurance premiums, government spending, and taxes than are envisioned in the legislation.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
504. Does the Doctor Need a Boss?
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon and Arnold Kling
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The traditional model of medical delivery, in which the doctor is trained, respected, and compensated as an independent craftsman, is anachronistic. When a patient has multiple ailments, there is no longer a simple doctor patient or doctor-patient-specialist relationship. Instead, there are multiple specialists who have an impact on the patient, each with a set of interdependencies and difficult coordination issues that increase exponentially with the number of ailments involved.
- Topic:
- Economics, Health, and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States
505. Bailout or Bankruptcy?
- Author:
- Jeffrey A. Miron
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- At the end of September 2007, the U.S. economy had experienced 24 consecutive quarters of positive GDP growth, at an average annual rate of 2.73 percent. The S 500 Index stood at roughly 1,500, having rebounded over 600 points from its low point in 2003. Unemployment was below 5 percent, and inflation was low and stable.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
506. Origins of the Financial Market Crisis of 2008
- Author:
- Anna J. Schwartz
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- I begin by describing the factors that contributed to the financial market crisis of 2008. I end by proposing policies that could have prevented the baleful effects that produced the crisis.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
507. Reflections on the Financial Crisis
- Author:
- Allan H. Meltzer
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- I am going to make several unrelated points, and then I am going to discuss how we got into this financial crisis and some needed changes to reduce the risk of future crises.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
508. Monetary Policy and Asset Prices Revisited
- Author:
- Donald L. Kohn
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- We are in the midst of a global financial crisis that is now weighing heavily on economies around the world. Although the outlook remains extremely uncertain, both the fragility of the financial system and the weakness in real activity seem likely to persist for a while. To promote maximum sustainable economic growth and price stability, the Federal Reserve has responded to this crisis by easing monetary policy markedly, and we have greatly expanded our liquidity facilities to keep credit flowing when private lenders have become reluctant or unable to do so. Other central banks have also cut policy rates significantly and expanded their lending. In addition, the federal government and governments around the world have taken extraordinary actions to strengthen financial systems to preserve the ability of households and businesses to borrow and spend.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
509. Asset Prices and Monetary Policy
- Author:
- Otmar Issing
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Beyond dealing with the immediate problems, any crisis raises questions of why and how we got there and what lessons should be drawn to avoid a repetition of past developments—without laying the ground for a new disaster. This line of inquiry also applies to the current crisis in financial markets. Even during the heaviest turbulence a discussion has started on obvious deficits in the system of regulation and supervision and on badly needed improvements. In this article, I concentrate on monetary policy but that does not mean regulatory measures are irrelevant in this context, quite the opposite.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
510. What Lessons Can We Learn from the Boom and Turmoil?
- Author:
- Jeffrey M. Lacker
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The current financial crisis undoubtedly will inspire a great deal of research in the years ahead, and it may take some time before anything like a professional consensus emerges on causes and consequences. After all, it took several decades to document the causes of the Great Depression, and recent research continues to provide new perspectives. Nonetheless, I believe the central questions that are likely to occupy researchers are plainly in view, and some tentative lessons have emerged already. And in any event, legislators are not likely to await the fruits of future scholarship.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, Privatization, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
511. Financial Innovation, Regulation, and Reform
- Author:
- Charles W. Calomiris
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Financial innovations often respond to regulation by sidestepping regulatory restrictions that would otherwise limit activities in which people wish to engage. Securitization of loans (e.g., credit card receivables, or subprime residential mortgages) is often portrayed, correctly, as having arisen in part as a means of “arbitraging” regulatory capital requirements by booking assets off the balance sheets of regulated banks. Originators of the loans were able to maintain lower equity capital against those loans than they otherwise would have needed to maintain if the loans had been placed on their balance sheet.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
512. Bad Rules Produce Bad Outcomes: Underlying Public-Policy Causes of the U.S. Financial Crisis
- Author:
- Bert Ely
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The current global financial crisis is the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, with no end in sight. Already, much political finger pointing has occurred, with most of those fingers pointed at supposedly greedy bankers, investors, and hedge-fund managers as well as the financial deregulation of recent decades. Governments everywhere are rushing to enact new regulatory protections to pre- vent another crisis of this magnitude. Yet if history is any guide, these new regulations will set up the global economy for yet another financial crisis, perhaps worse than the present one, or create regulatory straitjackets that will greatly impede economic growth.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
513. Federal Reserve Policy and the Housing Bubble
- Author:
- Lawrence H. White
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The U.S. housing bubble and the fallout from its bursting are not the results of a laissez-faire monetary and financial system. They happened in an unanchored government fiat monetary system with a restricted financial system.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
514. The Case for Policy Sustainability
- Author:
- Wolfgang Münchau
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Should we worry about moral hazard while the house is burning? The discussion about economic policy is full of biblical metaphors, the language of water and floods, and of fire extinction during crises. Metaphors, even when not mixed, are often obstacles to the clarity of thought. That is clearly the case with the metaphor of moral hazard in trying to understand the current financial crisis. Instead of focusing on moral hazard, I prefer to use the concept of policy sustainability to argue that sustainable monetary, fiscal, and regulatory policies are essential for lasting prosperity.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
515. Moral Hazard in the Policy Response to the 2008 Financial Market Meltdown
- Author:
- Andrew A. Samwick
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Cato Institute is the ideal place to draw lessons from the sub- prime crisis. The organization's mission focuses on the interaction of public policies with free markets and limited government. Even the most ardent believer in free markets must fully understand that individual liberty implies neither the nonexistence nor the indifference of government to economic affairs. Individuals live in freedom and peace when public policies are crafted in accordance with well-established rules and implemented with an eye toward effectiveness, not expansion. In the halls of government, we need sobriety and vigilance rather than apathy or empire building.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
516. Moral Hazard and the Financial Crisis
- Author:
- Kevin Dowd
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- There is no denying that the current financial crisis has delivered a major seismic shock to the policy landscape. In country after country, we see governments panicked into knee-jerk responses and throwing their policy manuals overboard: bailouts and nationalizations on an unprecedented scale, fiscal prudence thrown to the winds, and the return of no-holds-barred Keynesianism. Lurid stories of the excesses of “free” competition—of greedy bankers walking away with hundreds of millions whilst taxpayers bail their institutions out, of competitive pressure to pay stratospheric bonuses and the like—are grist to the mill of those who tell us that “free markets have failed” and that what we need now is bigger government. To quote just one writer out of many others saying much the same, “the pendulum will swing—and should swing—towards an enhanced role for government in saving the market system from its excesses and inadequacies” (Summers 2008). Free markets have been tried and failed, so the argument goes, now we need more regulation and more active macroeconomic management.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
517. Money and the Present Crisis
- Author:
- Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- We remain in an economic crisis and financial crisis, one that Gary Gorton has named “The Panic of 2007” (Gorton 2008). The thesis of this article is that monetary policy has played a pivotal role. Under Alan Greenspan and now Ben Bernanke, the Fed has conducted monetary policy so as to foster moral hazard among investors, notably in housing (O'Driscoll 2008a). More generally, the crisis is the product of a “perfect storm” of misguided policy. Policies to encourage affordable housing fostered the growth of subprime lending and complex financial products to finance that lending. Regardless of the desirability of the social goal, the financial super- structure depended on housing prices never falling. Housing prices do fall sometimes, and did so decisively beginning in 2007 (Gorton 2008: 50).
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and New Zealand
518. Interest-Rate Targeting during the Great Moderation: A Reappraisal
- Author:
- Roger W. Garrison
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the era that has come to be known as the “Great Moderation” (dating from the mid-1980s), the Federal Reserve's policy committee (the Federal Open Market Committee or FOMC) pursued what has to be called a “learning-by-doing” strategy. The data that counted as relevant feedback—the unemployment rate and the inflation rate—seemed all along to be suggesting that the Fed was doing the right things. Even when the Fed lowered the Fed funds target to 1 per- cent in June 2003 and held it there for nearly a year, the economy appeared to be on an even keel and U.S. interest rates were in line with those in other countries. The historically low interest rates were attributed not to excessive monetary ease in the United States but to a worldwide increase in savings.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
519. The Way Forward: Incentives, Not Regulations
- Author:
- William Poole
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Most of the world today is concentrating not on the way forward after the crisis, but the way out of the crisis. This concentration brings the very real danger that steps taken now will cause problems later. The most obvious danger, perhaps, is that enormous government spending, here and abroad, will increase outstanding debt to a degree that will increase temptation to attempt to finance government budget deficits through inflation. Moral hazard is the less obvious, but perhaps more serious, problem we will face.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
520. After War: The Political Economy of Exporting Democracy
- Author:
- Christopher J. Coyne
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Christopher Coyne's book seeks to contribute to an understanding of the “precise mechanisms and contexts that contribute to or prevent” successful efforts to “export liberal democracy” by means of “military occupation and reconstruction” (p. 7). Even if this were the only accomplishment of this fine book, it would represent one of the most important contributions to the field of political economy in recent decades. However, Coyne does more. He draws from economics to produce a full-fledged framework for analyzing the economic, political, and social effects of all reconstruction efforts. He also questions the long-standing view that reconstruction requires, or even benefits from, a suspension of the principles of liberty, free association, and free market.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
521. Capitalism at Work: Business, Government, and Energy; Book 1 of Political Capitalism (A Trilogy)
- Author:
- Robert L. Bradley Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Robert L. Bradley Jr., for many years had to balance loyalty to his employer, Enron, with his belief in Austrian economics. With the collapse of Enron came the opportunity to resolve the conflict in favor of Austrian economics. Bradley chose to undertake the slow development that would produce a definitive study rather than an instant bestseller. He ultimately decided to produce a three-volume treatment. The first of these, the book under review here, deals with two overriding conceptual issues relevant to the Enron collapse and their implications to Enron and earlier debacles. The first is what is the essence of free-market economics and whether the Enron experience undermines the case for free markets. The other is the invalidity of resource pessimism. Later volumes will deal with similar problems such as the Insull holding-company collapse in the Great Depression and then a concluding volume on Enron itself.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
522. On the Contrary: Leading the Opposition in a Democratic South Africa
- Author:
- Tony Leon
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- On the Contrary is a seamless combination of a memoir of an influential South African politician and a well-researched modern history of his country. The author was the leader of the liberal Democratic Alliance, the leader of the opposition in Parliament.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, International Trade and Finance, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States and South Africa
523. A Better Way to Generate and Use Comparative-Effectiveness Research
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Barack Obama, former U.S. Senate majority leader Tom Daschle, and others propose a new government agency that would evaluate the relative effectiveness of medical treatments. The need for “comparative-effectiveness research” is great. Evidence suggests Americans spend $700 billion annually on medical care that provides no value. Yet patients, providers, and purchasers typically lack the necessary information to distinguish between high- and low-value services.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Health, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
524. Health-Status Insurance: How Markets Can Provide Health Security
- Author:
- John H. Cochrane
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- None of us has health insurance, really. If you develop a long-term condition such as heart disease or cancer, and if you then lose your job or are divorced, you can lose your health insurance. You now have a preexisting condition, and insurance will be enormously expensive—if it's available at all. Free markets can solve this problem, and provide life-long, portable health security, while enhancing consumer choice and competition. “Heath-status insurance” is the key. If you are diagnosed with a long-term, expensive condition, a health-status insurance policy will give you the resources to pay higher medical insurance premiums. Health-status insurance covers the risk of premium reclassification, just as medical insurance covers the risk of medical expenses. With health-status insurance, you can always obtain medical insurance, no matter how sick you get, with no change in out-of-pocket costs.
- Topic:
- Economics, Health, Markets, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
525. Financial Crisis and Public Policy
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This Policy Analysis explains the antecedents of the current global financial crisis and critically examines the reasoning behind the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve's actions to prop up the financial sector. It argues that recovery from the financial crisis is likely to be slow with or without the government's bailout actions. An oil price spike and a wealth shock in housing initiated the financial crisis. Declines in stock values are intensifying that shock, threatening to deepen the current recession as U.S. consumers and investors cut their expenditures. An offsetting wealth injection from additional risk-bearing investors could initiate a quicker recovery. Thus, supporters of government intervention justify the bailout's debt-financed fund injections—in essence, they want to compel future taxpayers to join the group of today's risk bearing investors.
- Topic:
- Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
526. NATO at 60: A Hollow Alliance
- Author:
- Ted Galen Carpenter
- Publication Date:
- 03-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- As the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrates its 60th birthday, there are mounting signs of trouble within the alliance and reasons to doubt the organization's relevance regarding the foreign policy challenges of the 21st century. Several developments contribute to those doubts. Although NATO has added numerous new members during the past decade, most of them possess minuscule military capabilities. Some of them also have murky political systems and contentious relations with neighboring states, including (and most troubling) a nuclear-armed Russia. Thus, NATO's new members are weak, vulnerable, and provocative—an especially dangerous combination for the United States in its role as NATO's leader.
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, NATO, International Cooperation, and International Security
- Political Geography:
- Russia and North Atlantic
527. Pakistan and the Future of U.S. Policy
- Author:
- Malou Innocent
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A spreading Islamic insurgency engulfs the amorphous and ungoverned border between Afghanistan and Pakistan. After initial victories by the United States and the Northern Alliance in autumn 2001, hundreds of Taliban and al Qaeda fighters fled Afghanistan to seek refuge across the border in Pakistan's rugged northwest. Since 2007, the number of ambushes, militant offensives, and targeted assassinations has risen sharply across Afghanistan, while suicide bombers and pro-Taliban insurgents sweep through settled areas of Pakistan at an alarming pace. For better and for worse, Pakistan will remain the fulcrum of U.S. policy in the region—its leaders continue to provide vital counterterrorism cooperation and have received close to $20 billion in assistance from the United States, yet elements associated with its national intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence, covertly assist militant proxy groups destabilizing the region
- Topic:
- Security, Foreign Policy, International Cooperation, Islam, and War
- Political Geography:
- Pakistan, Afghanistan, United States, South Asia, and Asia
528. Bright Lines and Bailouts: To Bail or Not To Bail, That Is the Question
- Author:
- Vern McKinley and Gary Gegenheimer
- Publication Date:
- 04-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A financial-institution bailout involves government intervention through a transaction or forbearance targeted to a financial institution or group of financial institutions. The action is preemptive as the financial institution does not fail and go out of business, but remains a going concern, benefiting creditors, shareholders, or counterparties. In the absence of a bailout, the financial institution would either be forced to go through receivership or bankruptcy in the prescribed legal form, or have its role in financial intermediation disrupted.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Political Economy, and Privatization
- Political Geography:
- United States
529. Obamacare to Come: Seven Bad Ideas for Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- President Obama has made it clear that reforming the American health care system will be one of his top priorities. In response, congressional leaders have promised to introduce legislation by this summer, and they hope for an initial vote in the Senate before the Labor Day recess.
- Topic:
- Government and Health
- Political Geography:
- United States
530. Broadcast Localism and the Lessons of the Fairness Doctrine
- Author:
- John Samples
- Publication Date:
- 05-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution recognizes a laissez-faire policy toward speech and the press. The Framers of the Bill of Rights worried that the self-interest of politicians fostered suppression of speech. In contrast, some constitutional theorists have argued that the Constitution empowers, rather than restricts, the federal government to manage speech in order to attain the values implicit in the First Amendment.
- Topic:
- Civil Society and Mass Media
- Political Geography:
- United States
531. Massachusetts Miracle or Massachusetts Miserable: What the Failure of the "Massachusetts Model" Tells Us about Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 06-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- When Massachusetts passed its pioneering health care reforms in 2006, critics warned that they would result in a slow but steady spiral downward toward a government-run health care system. Three years later, those predictions appear to be coming true: Although the state has reduced the number of residents without health insurance, 200,000people remain uninsured. Moreover, the increase in the number of insured is primarily due to the state's generous subsidies, not the celebrated individual mandate. Health care costs continue to rise much faster than the national average. Since 2006, total state health care spending has increased by28 percent. Insurance premiums have increased by 8–10 percent per year, nearly double the national average. New regulations and bureaucracy are limiting consumer choice and adding to healthcare costs. Program costs have skyrocketed. Despite tax increases, the program faces huge deficits. The state is considering caps on insurance premiums, cuts in reimbursements to providers, and even the possibility of a “global budget” on health care spending—with its attendant rationing. A shortage of providers, combined with increased demand, is increasing waiting times to see a physician. With the “Massachusetts model” frequently cited as a blueprint for health care reform, it is important to recognize that giving the government greater control over our health care system will have grave consequences for taxpayers, providers, and health care consumers. That is the lesson of the Massachusetts model.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, Markets, and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States
532. Thinking Clearly about Economic Inequality
- Author:
- Will Wilkinson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Recent discussions of economic inequality, marked by a lack of clarity and care, have confused the public about the meaning and moral significance of rising income inequality. Income statistics paint a misleading picture of real standards of living and real economic inequality. Several strands of evidence about real standards of living suggest a very different picture of the trends in economic inequality. In any case, the dispersion of incomes at any given time has, at best, a tenuous connection to human welfare or social justice. The pattern of incomes is affected by both morally desirable and undesirable mechanisms. When injustice or wrongdoing increases income inequality, the problem is the original malign cause, not the resulting inequality. Many thinkers mistake national populations for “society” and thereby obscure the real story about the effects of trade and immigration on welfare, equality, and justice. There is little evidence that high levels of income inequality lead down a slippery slope to the destruction of democracy and rule by the rich. The unequal political voice of the poor can be addressed only through policies that actually work to fight poverty and improve education. Income inequality is a dangerous distraction from the real problems: poverty, lack of economic opportunity, and systemic injustice.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Social Stratification
533. Effects of the Financial Crisis on The U.S.-China Economic Relationship
- Author:
- Eswar S. Prasad
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The U.S. and China are two of the dominant economies in the world today and the nature of their relationship has far-reaching implications for the smooth functioning of the global trade and financial systems. These two economies are becoming increasingly integrated with each other through the flows of goods, financial capital, and people. These rising linkages of course now stretch far beyond just trade and finance, to a variety of geopolitical and global security issues. Getting this relationship right is therefore of considerable importance.
- Topic:
- Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States and China
534. Economic Development and Growth: A Survey
- Author:
- Meir Kohn
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The most basic challenge for economics is to understand the nature and causes of economic progress. But what exactly is to be explained? What are the facts? One very striking fact is historical—the rapid acceleration in the rate of economic progress since the early 1800s. Another is geographical—the huge differences in levels of economic progress in different parts of the world today. The questions virtually ask themselves. Why did economic progress accelerate? Why is it not universal? On the whole, these two questions have been addressed by two different specialized fields within economics. Economic history has addressed the question of change over time, and development economics has addressed the question of contemporary differences across countries.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- England
535. Can Latin America Prosper by Reducing the Size of Government?
- Author:
- Radhames Lizardo and André V. Mollick
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article examines the effect of government consumption on economic growth in 23 Latin American countries over the years 1974–2003. Employing the Armey Curve, we show that the typical Latin American government is spending beyond the optimal point. Using panel data and a fixed effects (FE) model, we find that increases in government consumption lead to unambiguous decreases in economic growth.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- China and Latin America
536. The Effects of Corruption on FDI Inflows
- Author:
- Ali Al-Sadig
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows during the 1990s has motivated a host of recent studies into their determinants. Recently, the level of corruption in the host country has been introduced as one factor among the determinants of FDI location. From a theoretical viewpoint, corruption—that is, paying bribes to corrupt government bureaucrats to get “favors” such as permits, investment licenses, tax assessments, and police protection—is generally viewed as an additional cost of doing business or a tax on profits. As a result, corruption can be expected to decrease the expected profitability of investment projects. Investors will therefore take the level of corruption in a host country into account in making decisions to invest abroad.
- Topic:
- Corruption
- Political Geography:
- United States
537. U.S. Energy Policy and the Presumption of Market Failure
- Author:
- Peter Z. Grossman
- Publication Date:
- 08-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the last 35 years, the U.S. government has embarked on several major projects to spur the commercial development of energy technologies intended to substitute for conventional energy resources, especially fossil fuels. Those efforts began with the 1973 energy crisis when President Nixon became the first U.S. leader to announce a plan for energy autarky. Presidents Ford and Carter followed Nixon's “Project Independence” with similar pledges. But beginning with Ford's 1975 energy act, plans for energy independence were tied directly to the development of new, alternative energy technologies. Under President Carter in particular, the federal government embarked on highly publicized, heavily funded efforts at developing new technologies with specific timetables for commercial entry and, in a few cases, a timetable for mass market substitution. Current mandates for ethanol and other biofuels fit this latter objective.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
538. How Urban Planners Caused the Housing Bubble
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Everyone agrees that the recent financial crisis started with the deflation of the housing bubble. But what caused the bubble? Answering this question is important both for identifying the best short-term policies and for fixing the credit crisis, as well as for developing long-term policies aimed at preventing another crisis in the future.
- Topic:
- Economics, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States, California, and Georgia
539. Halfway to Where? Answering the Key Questions of Health Care Reform
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Although neither the House nor the Senate passed a health care bill by President Obama's August deadline, various pieces of legislation have made it through committee, and they provide a concrete basis for analyzing what the proposed health care reform would and would not do. Looking at the various bills that are moving on Capitol Hill, we can determine the following: Contrary to the Obama administration's repeated assurances, millions of Americans who are happy with their current health insurance will not be able to keep it. As many as 89.5 million people may be dumped into a government-run plan. Some Americans may find themselves forced into a new insurance plan that no longer includes their current doctor. Americans will pay more than $820 billion in additional taxes over the next 10 years, and could see their insurance premiums rise as much as 95 percent. The current health care bills will increase the budget deficit by at least $239 billion over the next 10 years, and far more in the years beyond that. If the new health care entitlement were subject to the same 75-year actuarial standards as Social Security or Medicare, its unfunded liabilities would exceed $9.2 trillion. While the bills contain no direct provisions for rationing care, they nonetheless increase the likelihood of government rationing and interference with how doctors practice medicine. Contrary to assertions of some opponents, the bills contain no provision for euthanasia or mandatory end-of-life counseling. The bills' provisions on abortion coverage are far murkier.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, Human Welfare, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
540. Would a Stricter Fed Policy and Financial Regulation Have Averted the Financial Crisis?
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale and Peter Van Doren
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many commentators have argued that if the Federal Reserve had followed a stricter monetary policy earlier this decade when the housing bubble was forming, and if Congress had not deregulated banking but had imposed tighter financial standards, the housing boom and bust—and the subsequent financial crisis and recession—would have been averted. In this paper, we investigate those claims and dispute them. We are skeptical that economists can detect bubbles in real time through technical means with any degree of unanimity. Even if they could, we doubt the Fed would have altered its policy in the early 21st century, and we suspect that political leaders would have exerted considerable pressure to maintain that policy. Concerning regulation, we find that the banking reform of the late 1990s had little effect on the housing boom and bust, and that the many reform ideas currently proposed would have done little or nothing to avert the crisis.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
541. Somalia, Redux: A More Hands-Off Approach
- Author:
- David Axe
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The two-decade-old conflict in Somalia has entered a new phase, which presents both a challenge and an opportunity for the United States. The elections of new U.S. and Somali presidents in late 2008 and early 2009 provide an opportunity to reframe U.S.-Somali relations. To best encourage peace in the devastated country, Washington needs a new strategy that takes into account hard-learned lessons from multiple failed U.S. interventions. The old strategy favoring military force and reflexive opposition to all Islamists should give way to one emphasizing regional diplomacy and at least tacit acceptance of a government that is capable of bringing order to Somalia.
- Topic:
- Conflict Resolution, Islam, Terrorism, and Fragile/Failed State
- Political Geography:
- Africa, United States, and Somalia
542. Yes, Mr. President: A Free Market Can Fix Health Care
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In March 2009, President Barack Obama said, “If there is a way of getting this done where we're driving down costs and people are getting health insurance at an affordable rate, and have choice of doctor, have flexibility in terms of their plans, and we could do that entirely through the market, I'd be happy to do it that way.” This paper explains how letting workers control their health care dollars and tearing down regulatory barriers to competition would control costs, expand choice, improve health care quality, and make health coverage more secure.
- Topic:
- Economics, Health, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
543. High-Speed Rail Is Not "Interstate 2.0"
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The administration has likened President Obama's high-speed rail plan to President Eisenhower's Interstate Highway System. Yet there are crucial differences between interstate highways and high-speed rail. First, before Congress approved the Interstate Highway System, it had a good idea how much it would cost. In contrast, Congress approved $8 billion for high-speed rail without knowing the total cost, which is likely to be at least $90 billion.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy, Government, and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
544. All the President's Mandates: Compulsory Health Insurance Is a Government Takeover
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 09-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The most hazardous health reform measure before Congress is not the so-called "public option," but proposals to make health insurance compulsory via an individual or employer mandate. Compulsory health insurance could require nearly 100 million Americans to switch to a more expensive health plan and would therefore violate President Barack Obama's pledge to let people keep their current health insurance. In particular, the legislation before Congress could eliminate many or all health savings account plans. Making health insurance compulsory would also spark an unnecessary fight over abortion and would enable government to ration care to those with private health insurance.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
545. Peter Bauer and the Failure of Foreign Aid
- Author:
- Andrei Shleifer
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Peter Bauer was one of the greatest development economists in history. He was an advocate of property rights protection and free trade before these ideas became commonplace. He appreciated before others did the crucial roles of entrepreneurship and trade in development. He was also one of the earliest opponents of the over-population thesis, recognizing that the poor like the rich should have the right to choose the number of children they have, that many developing countries are underpopulated, and that population growth will anyhow slow down once they become richer. Bauer's writings are remarkable for their deep humanity and commitment to the welfare of the people in the developing world, but without the fake sanctimony that characterizes much of the modern rhetoric.
- Topic:
- Human Rights
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe and East Asia
546. Economic Development and Growth: A Survey
- Author:
- Meir Kohn
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The most basic challenge for economics is to understand the nature and causes of economic progress. But what exactly is to be explained? What are the facts? One very striking fact is historical—the rapid acceleration in the rate of economic progress since the early 1800s. Another is geographical—the huge differences in levels of economic progress in different parts of the world today. The questions virtually ask themselves. Why did economic progress accelerate? Why is it not universal? On the whole, these two questions have been addressed by two different specialized fields within economics. Economic history has addressed the question of change over time, and development economics has addressed the question of contemporary differences across countries.
- Topic:
- Economics and War
- Political Geography:
- England
547. The Effects of Corruption on FDI Inflows
- Author:
- Ali Al-Sadig
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The surge in foreign direct investment (FDI) flows during the 1990s has motivated a host of recent studies into their determinants. Recently, the level of corruption in the host country has been introduced as one factor among the determinants of FDI location. From a theoretical viewpoint, corruption—that is, paying bribes to corrupt government bureaucrats to get “favors” such as permits, investment licenses, tax assessments, and police protection—is generally viewed as an additional cost of doing business or a tax on profits. As a result, corruption can be expected to decrease the expected profitability of investment projects. Investors will therefore take the level of corruption in a host country into account in making decisions to invest abroad.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- United States
548. U.S. Energy Policy and the Presumption of Market Failure
- Author:
- Peter Z. Grossman
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the last 35 years, the U.S. government has embarked on several major projects to spur the commercial development of energy technologies intended to substitute for conventional energy resources, especially fossil fuels. Those efforts began with the 1973 energy crisis when President Nixon became the first U.S. leader to announce a plan for energy autarky. Presidents Ford and Carter followed Nixon's “Project Independence” with similar pledges. But beginning with Ford's 1975 energy act, plans for energy independence were tied directly to the development of new, alternative energy technologies. Under President Carter in particular, the federal government embarked on highly publicized, heavily funded efforts at developing new technologies with specific timetables for commercial entry and, in a few cases, a timetable for mass market substitution. Current mandates for ethanol and other biofuels fit this latter objective.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
549. The Potential for System-Friendly K– 12 Reform
- Author:
- John Merrifield
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Numerous empirical models connect individual student test scores or average test scores to theoretically plausible policy and socioeconomic variables. Although the models were created to test for the effect of a specific factor like funding levels or teacher training on student performance, the fully specified models also have important implications for the ability of the current K–12 school system to significantly improve its performance. This article examines various student performance models and the potential for system- friendly K–12 reform.
- Political Geography:
- United States
550. Mandatory Health Insurance: Lessons from Massachusetts
- Author:
- Craig J. Richardson
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- What lessons can be learned from the implementation of mandatory health insurance? As the Obama administration contemplates enacting far-reaching health care reforms that increase the role of government, the case of Massachusetts is worth serious study. Massachusetts' three-year experiment with mandatory health insurance (known as Chapter 58 legislation) has been judged by some health economists to be a qualified success, since it reached a primary goal of lowering the number of uninsured in the state (Gruber 2009, Long and Masi 2008). On the other hand, Tanner (2008: 5) argues that previously uninsured citizens signed up for health insurance because it was free or heavily subsidized, not because of the mandate itself. Official state statistics claim the number of uninsured in the state dropped from 11 percent in 2005 to less than 3 percent in 2009 (Massachusetts Health Connector 2009). Tanner (2009) disputes this number and suggests the number is closer to 5 percent, using Urban Institute and Census surveys as evidence. What supporters and foes of mandatory health insurance both seem to agree on is that the number of uninsured has fallen in the state since Chapter 58, and yet there remain between 150,000 and 200,000 uninsured citizens.
- Topic:
- Health
- Political Geography:
- United States
551. On the Measurement of Zimbabwe's Hyperinflation
- Author:
- Steve H. Hanke and Alex K. F. Kwok
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Zimbabwe experienced the first hyperinflation of the 21st century. The government terminated the reporting of official inflation statistics, however, prior to the final explosive months of Zimbabwe's hyperinflation. We demonstrate that standard economic theory can be applied to overcome this apparent insurmountable data problem. In consequence, we are able to produce the only reliable record of the second highest inflation in world history.
- Political Geography:
- Central Asia, Eastern Europe, and Zimbabwe
552. The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World
- Author:
- David Beckworth
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The historian Niall Ferguson can never be accused of lacking boldness. Over the past decade he has argued, among other things, that Europe would have been better off had Great Britain stayed out of World War I and allowed Germany to win, that the British empire provided a global public good that benefited the world economy, and that the United States should follow suit today by more actively embracing the demands of empire. He has also been championing the burgeoning field of counterfactual history, a development that many historians consider controversial given its speculative nature.
- Topic:
- War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, and Germany
553. Small Change: Money, Political Parties, and Campaign Finance Reform
- Author:
- R. Sam Garrett
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Ray La Raja has written one of the most provocative campaign finance books in recent memory. Small Change causes the reader to struggle with fundamental “truths” about money and politics, to revisit old questions, and to ask new ones. La Raja directly challenges prevailing scholarship—and popular wisdom—concerning the purposes and origins of campaign finance regulation and its effect on political parties. The dual focus on campaign finance and American political parties is arguably the book's greatest strength. (La Raja generally uses the term “regulation” broadly, although his focus is on major changes in law rather than on regulations, such as those issued by the Federal Election Commission. For expediency, this review also uses the term “regulation” to encompass both federal campaign finance law and agency regulations.)
- Political Geography:
- America
554. The Libertarian Illusion: Ideology, Public Policy, and the Assault on the Common Good
- Author:
- Jason Kuznicki
- Publication Date:
- 10-2009
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- It is daunting to review a book claiming that everything you believe is wrong. Fortunately, William Hudson's The Libertarian Illusion also attacks many things that neither I nor very many other libertarians believe. This gives courage for the rest.
- Topic:
- Government
- Political Geography:
- California
555. Three Decades of Politics and Failed Policies at HUD
- Author:
- Tad DeHaven
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has long been plagued by scandals, mismanagement, and policy failures. Most recently, HUD's subsidies and failed oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped to inflate the housing bubble, which ultimately burst and cascaded into a major financial crisis.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, Markets, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
556. Bending the Productivity Curve: Why America Leads the World in Medical Innovation
- Author:
- Glen Whitman and Raymond Raad
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The health care issues commonly considered most important today — controlling costs and covering the uninsured — arguably should be regarded as secondary to innovation, inasmuch as a medical treatment must first be invented before its costs can be reduced and its use extended to everyone. To date, however, none of the most influential international comparisons have examined the contributions of various countries to the many advances that have improved the productivity of medicine over time. We hope this paper can help fill that void.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- America
557. The Myth of the Compact City: Why Compact Development Is Not the Way to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Proponents of compact development argue that rebuilding American urban areas to higher densities is vital for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Compact city policies call for reducing driving by housing a higher percentage of people in multi-family and mixed-use developments, reducing the average lot sizes of single-family homes, redesigning streets and neighborhoods to be more pedestrian friendly, concentrating jobs in selected areas, and spending more on mass transit and less on highways.
- Topic:
- Energy Policy and Governance
- Political Geography:
- United States and America
558. Fairness 2.0: Media Content Regulation in the 21st Century
- Author:
- Robert Corn-Revere
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Civil libertarians feared that a change of administrations would herald a revived Fairness Doctrine, a policy that previously permitted the government to oversee broadcast news coverage for "balanced views." A return to the Fairness Doctrine, however, now seems unlikely. It is very likely, however, that politicians from both the left and the right will try to extend government control over the media beyond current policies. New rules adopted or proposed by the Federal Communications Commission suggest that the agency may be poised to enforce the most intensive government oversight of broadcast programming in decades—perhaps even in the history of the agency. The FCC voted last year to require each broadcast licensee to file quarterly "enhanced disclosure" reports—highly detailed information regarding its programming and editorial choices. This information will be used by organized groups to file complaints to pressure broadcasters to air programming that the complainants prefer. The FCC is also formulating programming guidelines based on the enhanced disclosure reports purporting to ensure that broadcasters meet local needs. This "broadcast localism" effort may also require broadcasters to appoint local boards to oversee their performance and their editorial decisions. As the FCC seeks to expand regulation of broadcast media, the traditional justification for its authority—spectrum scarcity—has lost credibility, and the agency's new efforts are likely to run afoul of the First Amendment.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Mass Media, and Culture
- Political Geography:
- United States
559. The Citizens' Guide to Transportation Reauthorization
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 12-2009
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Sometime in 2010 or 2011, Congress expects to decide how to spend the $250 billion or more of federal gas taxes and other highway user fees that will be collected over the next six years. The process of doing so is called surface transportation reauthorization. A major point of contention in this law is how much of our transportation system should be centrally planned and how much should be built and operated in response to the needs of actual transportation users.
- Topic:
- Economics and Infrastructure
- Political Geography:
- United States
560. Crossing Borders, Changing Landscapes: Land-Use Dynamics in the Golden Triangle
- Author:
- Jefferson Fox
- Publication Date:
- 11-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Over the last half-century, public policy has affected land-use practices across the borders linking China, Thailand, and Laos. Political and economic reforms have facilitated labor mobility and a shift in agricultural practices away from staple grains and toward a diverse array of cash crops, rubber being one of the foremost. China has promoted the conversion of forests to rubber agroforestry in southern Yunnan—profitable for farmers, but a concern in terms of biodiversity and long-term viability. In Thailand, the response is at the other end of the spectrum as the government's concerns about land-use practices and watershed management have led to policies that dramatically constrain land-use practices and limit tenure rights. In Laos the future is not yet clear. Government policies provide weak support for both private land ownership and protected areas. In a global environment where national policy has such a dramatic effect on land use and land cover, the factors behind land-use change merit close examination.
- Topic:
- Agriculture and Economics
- Political Geography:
- China, Asia, Thailand, Southeast Asia, and Laos
561. A Matter of Trust: Why Congress Should Turn Federal Lands into Fiduciary Trusts
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 01-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service collectivelymanagewell over a quarter of the land in theUnited States.Although everyone agrees that the landsandresourcesmanagedbytheseagencies are exceedingly valuable, the lands collectively cost taxpayers around $7 billion per year.
- Topic:
- Agriculture, Civil Society, Environment, Government, and Privatization
562. Troubled Neighbor: Mexico's Drug Violence Poses a Threat to the United States
- Author:
- Ted Galen Carpenter
- Publication Date:
- 02-2009
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- While U.S. leaders have focused on actual or illusory security threats in distant regions, there is a troubling security problem brewing much closer to home. Violence in Mexico, mostly related to the trade in illegal drugs, has risen sharply in recent years and shows signs of becoming even worse. That violence involves turf fights among the various drug-trafficking organizations as they seek to control access to the lucrative U.S. market. To an increasing extent, the violence also entails fighting between drug traffickers and Mexican military and police forces.
- Topic:
- Security and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States and Mexico
563. A Fork in the Road: Obama, McCain, and Health Care
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Healthcare reform will be one of the top issues of the 2008 presidential election. In the face of widespread public demand for changes in the U.S. health care system, both Barack Obama and John McCain have offered detailed proposals for reform.
- Topic:
- Government, Health, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
564. The Klein Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Polemics
- Author:
- Johan Norberg
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Naomi Klein's The Shock Doctrine ;purports to be an exposé of the ruthless nature of free-market capitalism and its chief recent exponent, Milton Friedman. Klein argues that capitalism goes hand in hand with dictatorship and brutality and that dictators and other unscrupulous political figures take advantage of "shocks"-catastrophes real or manufactured-to consolidate their power and implement unpopular market reforms. Klein cites Chile under General Augusto Pinochet, Britain under Margaret Thatcher, China during the Tiananmen Square crisis, and the ongoing war in Iraq as examples of this process.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Economics, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- China and Chile
565. Asset Bubbles and Their Consequences
- Author:
- Gerald P. O'Driscoll Jr.
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the past, the federal government has introduced moral hazard in the banking system through deposit insurance. Banks underpriced risk because of the federal guarantee that backed deposits. After banking crises in the 1980s and 1990s, deposit insurance was put on a sound basis and that source of moral hazard was mitigated. In its place, monetary policy has become a source of moral hazard. In acting to counter the economic effects of declining asset prices, the Federal Reserve has come to be viewed as underwriting risky investments. Policy pronouncements by senior Fed officials have reinforced that perception. These actions and pronouncements are mutually reinforcing and destructive to the operation of financial markets. The current financial crisis began in the subprime housing market and then spread throughout credit markets. The new Fed policy fueled the housing boom. Refusing to accept responsibility for the housing bubble, the Fed's recent actions will likely fuel a new asset bubble. The cumulative effects of recent monetary policy undermine the case for free markets.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
566. FASB: Making Financial Statements Mysterious
- Author:
- T.J. Rodgers
- Publication Date:
- 08-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Since the passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act in 2002, the Financial Accounting Standards Board has passed rules that it promises will make corporate accounting more transparent. In fact, its revised Generally Accepted Accounting Principles have made it difficult for investors — or even CEOs — to understand a company's financial report.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
567. Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae: An Exit Strategy for the Taxpayer
- Author:
- Arnold Kling
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac crisis may have been the most avoidable financial crisis in history. Economists have long complained that the risks posed by the government-sponsored enterprises were large relative to any social benefits.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Financial Crisis
- Political Geography:
- United States
568. Rails Won't Save America
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Rising gas prices and concerns about greenhouse gases have stimulated calls to build more rail transit lines in urban areas, increase subsidies to Amtrak, and construct a large-scale intercity high-speed rail system. These megaprojects will cost hundreds of billions of dollars, but they won't save energy or significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
569. Does Barack Obama Support Socialized Medicine?
- Author:
- Michael F. Cannon
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (IL) has proposed an ambitious plan to restructure America's health care sector. Rather than engage in a detailed critique of Obama's health care plan, many critics prefer to label it "socialized medicine." Is that a fair description of the Obama plan and similar plans? Over the past year, prominent media outlets and respectable think tanks have investigated that question and come to a unanimous answer: no.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, Health, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
570. Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq
- Author:
- Benjamin H. Friedman, Harvey Sapolsky, and Christopher Preble
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Foreign policy experts and policy analysts are misreading the lessons of Iraq. The emerging conventional wisdom holds that success could have been achieved in Iraq with more troops, more cooperation among U.S. government agencies, and better counterinsurgency doctrine. To analysts who share these views, Iraq is not an example of what not to do but of how not to do it. Their policy proposals aim to reform the national security bureaucracy so that we will get it right the next time.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and War
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, and Middle East
571. Parting with Illusions: Developing a Realistic Approach to Relations with Russia
- Author:
- Nikolas Gvosdev
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- A review of America's post-Soviet strategy toward Russia is long overdue. The illusions that once guided policy are now at an end. What is needed is a dispassionate approach to Russia, wherein Americans would neither magnify nor excuse the virtues and vices of the Russian Federation but would accept the following realities: Russia is unlikely to become integrated into the Euro-Atlantic community and is unwilling to adjust its foreign policy priorities accordingly; There is broad-based support within Russia for the direction in which Vladimir Putin has taken the country; Russia has undergone a genuine—if limited— recovery from the collapse of the 1990s; Washington lacks sufficient leverage to compel Russian acquiescence to its policy preferences; and On a number of critical foreign policy issues, there is no clear community of interests that allows for concepts of "selective partnership" to be effective.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Diplomacy
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, America, Europe, Asia, and Soviet Union
572. Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification: Franz Kafka's Solution to Illegal Immigration
- Author:
- Jim Harper
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In last summer's debate over immigration reform, Congress treated a national electronic employment eligibility verification (EEV) system as a matter of near consensus. Intended to strengthen internal enforcement of the immigration laws, electronic EEV is an Internet-based employee vetting system that the federal government would require every employer to use.
- Topic:
- Economics, Government, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States
573. The Grass Is Not Always Greener: A Look at National Health Care Systems Around the World
- Author:
- Michael Tanner
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Critics of the U.S. health care system frequently point to other countries as models for reform. They point out that many countries spend far less on health care than the United States yet seem to enjoy better health outcomes. The United States should follow the lead of those countries, the critics say, and adopt a government- run, national health care system.
- Topic:
- Government and Health
- Political Geography:
- United States and Europe
574. Organ Sales and Moral Travails: Lessons from the Living Kidney Vendor Program in Iran
- Author:
- Benjamin E. Hippen
- Publication Date:
- 03-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Kidney transplantation in the United States is burdened by a terrible policy failure. The cost of this failure will be paid in the currency of years of human lives unnecessarily lost, as well as a massive increase in federal expenditures over the next decade and beyond. The number of patients with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in the United States has grown, but the supply of kidneys—for the preferred treatment for ESRD, kidney transplantation— has not kept pace with the demand. Unfortunately, the issue is not simply one of supply and demand: in the United States the supply of kidneys for transplantation is kept artificially low by a prohibition on the sale of human organs.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iran, and Middle East
575. Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Far from protecting the environment, most rail transit lines use more energy per passenger mile, and many generate more greenhouse gases, than the average passenger automobile. Rail transit provides no guarantee that a city will save energy or meet greenhouse gas targets.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Energy Policy, and Environment
- Political Geography:
- United States
576. Dismal Science: The Shortcomings of U.S. School Choice Research and How to Address Them
- Author:
- John Merrifield
- Publication Date:
- 04-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Pressing questions about the merits of market accountability in K-12 education have spawned a large scholarly literature. Unfortunately, much of that literature is of limited relevance, and some of it is misleading. The studies most widely cited in the United States used intense scrutiny of a few small-scale, restriction-laden U.S. programs—and a handful of larger but still restriction-laden foreign school choice expansions—to assert general conclusions about the effects of "choice," "competition," and "markets." The most intensely studied programs lack most or all of the key elements of market systems, including profit, price change, market entry, and product differentiation—factors that are normally central to any discussion of market effects. In essence, researchers have drawn conclusions about apples by studying lemons.
- Topic:
- Economics, Education, and Markets
- Political Geography:
- United States
577. Roadmap to Gridlock: The Failure of Long-Range Metropolitan Transportation Planning
- Author:
- Randal O'Toole
- Publication Date:
- 05-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Federal law requires metropolitan planning organizations in urban areas of more than 50,000 people to write long-range (20- to 30- year) metropolitan transportation plans and to revise or update those plans every 4 to 5 years. A review of plans for more than 75 of the nation's largest metropolitan areas reveals that virtually all of them fail to follow standard planning methods. As a result, taxpayers and travelers have little assurance that the plans make effective use of available resources to reduce congestion, maximize mobility, and provide safe transportation facilities.
- Topic:
- Civil Society, Development, and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
578. The Fiscal Impact of a Large-Scale Education Tax Credit Program
- Author:
- Andrew J. Coulson
- Publication Date:
- 07-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In this paper we estimate the budgetary impact of the Cato Institute's Public Education Tax Credit model legislation on five states and presents a generalized spreadsheet tool (“the Fiscal Impact Calculator”) that can estimate the program's effect on any other state for which the necessary input data are supplied. It is estimated that, in its first 10 years of operation, savings from the PETC program would range from $1.1 billion for South Carolina to $15.9 billion for Texas. Illinois, Wisconsin, and New York are estimated to enjoy 10-year savings within that range.
- Topic:
- Education and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States and New York
579. Friedman and Russia
- Author:
- Andrei Illarionov
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- One day I asked Milton Friedman a question. That question was in my mind every time we met: “Could he have achieved the same status he did in America if he had lived in Russia—not only in terms of his research, but in shaping his outlook on life and in his under-standing of freedom?” Having kept silent for a moment, he answered: “no.”
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- Russia, United States, America, Europe, and Asia
580. An Indian Economic Miracle?
- Author:
- Deepak Lal
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In explaining the acceleration in Indian growth, and to judge if an Indian economic miracle is on its way, it is first necessary to establish when this acceleration began, as this is still subject to controversy. Second it is necessary to identify the sources of this acceleration and to see to what extent these are the results of policy. Third, to provide some reading of the tea leaves until 2030, it is necessary to outline the current constraints on growth. But before that, the current change in Indian economic fortunes needs to be put into historical perspective. This is done in the first part of this article, followed by the next three parts, which deal with the other three broad themes outlined above. As this article is in honor of Angus Maddison, I rely wherever possible on the growth accounting method that he has made so much his own.
- Topic:
- Economics
- Political Geography:
- India and Asia
581. Human Rights, Limited Government, and Capitalism
- Author:
- Erich Weede
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- By and large, there are two distinct intellectual traditions in social theorizing. One is normative. It addresses how people should live or how the social order should be arranged. Much of the human rights discourse belongs to this tradition. The other tradition attempts to analyze the world as it is. Within this second tradition theories are evaluated according to criteria such as falsifiability, compatibility with known facts, explanatory power, or predictive value. If one is interested in feasibility, and if one links rights with corresponding obligations, then the separation between these intellectual traditions is regrettable. Then it makes little sense to generate long lists of human rights without knowing whether or not they ever can be implemented.
- Topic:
- Human Rights
582. State Income Taxes and Economic Growth
- Author:
- Barry W. Poulson and Jules Gordon Kaplan
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This article explores the impact of tax policy on economic growth in the states within the framework of an endogenous growth model. Regression analysis is used to estimate the impact of taxes on economic growth in the states from 1964 to 2004. The analysis reveals a significant negative impact of higher marginal tax rates on economic growth. The analysis underscores the importance of controlling for regressivity, convergence, and regional influences in isolating the effect of taxes on economic growth in the states.
583. Occupational Licensing and Asymmetric Information: Post-Hurricane Evidence from Florida
- Author:
- David Skarbek
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Federal, state, and county governments accept the argument that occupational licensing protects consumers and improves their welfare. This argument stands in stark contrast to the apparent rent seeking that occurs with licensing. In return for gains from state-created barriers to entry, coalitions built along occupational lines support politicians (Stigler 1971: 3–21).
584. The Collateral Source Rule: Statutory Reform and Special Interests
- Author:
- David Schap and Andrew Feeley
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Paul Rubin (2005) has addressed the evolution of American tort law from a public choice perspective. In contrast to earlier work in law and economics, which generally regarded tort law norms as efficient (Landes and Posner 1987), Rubin relied on more recent work in the field (Epstein 1988, Rubin and Bailey 1994) that regards tort law as being shaped by the special interests of plaintiff and (perhaps to a somewhat lesser extent) defense attorneys. In addition, Rubin envisioned business interests' influence toward tort reform as enhancing efficiency. He ended his article with a call for additional empirical research on modern American tort law from the public choice perspective and indeed suggested a number of specific items and areas of possible fruitful research. The spirit of Rubin's anticipated research program, as well as many of his specific suggestions, can be applied to our survey research findings concerning statutory reform of the collateral source rule.
- Political Geography:
- America
585. Currency Boards vs. Dollarization: Lessons from the Cook Islands
- Author:
- Richard C. K. Burdekin
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Modern currency boards are not necessarily precluded from financing government spending and may feature only partial foreign reserve backing. The potential dangers are highlighted by the Cook Islands case, where accelerating rates of currency issuance, combined with rising government budget deficits, led to a crisis of confidence in 1994. It is unlikely that the seigniorage gained from the short-lived currency board experiment outweighed the costs associated with the swings in policy. In the end, delayed fiscal retrenchment was accompanied by an abrupt contraction in the money supply as the local currency was withdrawn in 1995 and full dollarization re-established.
- Political Geography:
- Island
586. Macroeconomic Effects of Central Bank Transparency: The Case of Brazil
- Author:
- Helder Ferreira de Mendonça and José Simão Filho
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Nowadays there is a tendency for central banks to increase transparency in the conduct of monetary policy. Central bank transparency could be defined as the existence of symmetric information between monetary policymakers and other economic agents. High degrees of transparency reduce uncertainty, improve the private-sector inference about central bank goals, and increase the effectiveness of monetary policy. There is now an increasing literature that measures the effects of transparency on average inflation, output volatility (Chortareas, Stasavage, and Sterne 2002), the efficiency of monetary policy (Cecchetti and Krause 2002), and the volatility of financial markets (Ehrmann and Fratzscher 2005).
- Political Geography:
- Brazil
587. On the Death of the Resurrected Short-Run Phillips Curve: A Further Investigation
- Author:
- Masoud Moghaddam and James E. Jenson
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In a recent issue of this journal, Richard Reichel (2004) takes issue with the resurrected Phillips curve (PC) in William Niskanen's (2002) article. Accordingly, Niskanen's reformulation of the PC provides empirical evidence for a weak, but statistically significant, short-run (in the same year) tradeoff between inflation and unemployment rates in the United States. Furthermore, the unemployment rate is directly and significantly determined by the one-period lagged value of the inflation rate, which implies an upward sloping PC, consistent with the type of PC explicated by Milton Friedman (1987). Reichel's main point of contention is that the variables in the reformulated version of PC are nonstationary, meaning that statistical properties (such as conditional mean and variance) vary with time. Thus, Niskanen's findings are spurious.
- Political Geography:
- United States
588. Parrot Talk: The Repetition of Common Fallacies
- Author:
- Anthony de Jasay
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Many social scientists and political journalists keep parrots as useful labor-saving pets. These parrots are hidden in their masters' bosoms and are so well trained that when they start talking, we believe we hear their masters' voices. One can nevertheless recognize that it is the parrot holding forth, by the fact that it is always the same few texts that are repeated. Most of the parrots like one or other of the brief texts that are reproduced here in italics.
589. Book Reviews: The Healthcare Fix: Universal Insurance for All Americans
- Author:
- Jagadeesh Gokhale
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- This book is about how and why a severe economic and financial crisis may well unfold in the United States within the next few years. The main reason: politicians have been increasingly profligate with the public purse—expanding government entitlement and nonentitlement spending, seemingly without regard for future economic consequences.
- Political Geography:
- United States
590. Book Reviews: See Government Grow: Education Politics from Johnson to Reagan
- Author:
- Neal McCluskey
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Only a dozen years ago, the Republican Party platform called for abolition of the U.S. Department of Education. Perhaps a holdover from what many thought would be a government-leveling tidal wave when the GOP won control of both the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate in 1994, the 1996 platform declared that “the federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula. . . . That is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning.”
- Political Geography:
- United States
591. Book Reviews: Regulation and Public Interests: The Possibility of GOOD Regulatory Government
- Author:
- Peter Van Doren
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Journal Article
- Journal:
- The Cato Journal
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In theory, scientific (positive) and philosophical (normative) inquiry are quite distinct. The former involves the testing of hypotheses through the use of experiments or the estimation of statistical models using data, while the latter utilizes theological or philosophical analysis to conclude how people and institutions should behave.
592. Is the Gold Standard Still the Gold Standard among Monetary Systems?
- Author:
- Lawrence H. White
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Critics have raised a number of theoretical and historical objections to the gold standard. Some have called the gold standard a “crazy” idea. The gold standard is not a flawless monetary system. Neither is the fiat money alternative. In light of historical evidence about the comparative magnitude of these flaws, however, the gold standard is a policy option that deserves serious consideration.
- Topic:
- Economics and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
593. WHO's Fooling Who? The World Health Organization's Problematic Ranking of Health Care Systems
- Author:
- Glen Whitman
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The World Health Report 2000, prepared by the World Health Organization, presented performance rankings of 191 nations' health care systems. These rankings have been widely cited in public debates about health care, particularly by those interested in reforming the U.S. health care system to resemble more closely those of other countries. Michael Moore, for instance, famously stated in his film SiCKO that the United States placed only 37th in the WHO report. CNN.com, in verifying Moore's claim, noted that France and Canada both placed in the top 10.
- Topic:
- Health, Human Welfare, Humanitarian Aid, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- United States
594. What to Do about Climate Change
- Author:
- Indur M. Goklany
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The state-of-the-art British-sponsored fasttrack assessment of the global impacts of climate change, a major input to the much-heralded Stern Review on the Economics of Climate Change, indicates that through the year 2100, the contribution of climate change to human health and environmental threats will generally be overshadowed by factors not related to climate change. Hence, climate change is unlikely to be the world's most important environmental problem of the 21st century.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Climate Change, Environment, and Globalization
- Political Geography:
- Britain
595. Learning the Right Lessons from Iraq
- Author:
- Harvey Sapolsky, Christopher Preble, and Benjamin Friedman
- Publication Date:
- 02-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Foreign policy experts and policy analysts are misreading the lessons of Iraq. The emerging conventional wisdom holds that success could have been achieved in Iraq with more troops, more cooperation among U.S. government agencies, and better counterinsurgency doctrine. To analysts who share these views, Iraq is not an example of what not to do but of how not to do it. Their policy proposals aim to reform the national security bureaucracy so that we will get it right the next time.
- Topic:
- International Relations and Oil
- Political Geography:
- United States, Iraq, and Middle East
596. Cracks in the Foundation: NATO's New Troubles
- Author:
- Stanley Kober
- Publication Date:
- 01-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is beginning to fracture. Its members, sharing the triumphalism that underpinned U.S. foreign policy after the Cold War, took on burdens that have proved more difficult than expected. Increasingly, they are failing to meet the challenges confronting them.
- Topic:
- International Relations, Defense Policy, NATO, and International Organization
- Political Geography:
- United States
597. Markets vs. Monopolies in Education: A Global Review of the Evidence
- Author:
- Andrew J. Coulson
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Would large-scale, free-market reforms improve educational outcomes forAmerican children?That question cannot be answered by looking at domestic evidence alone. Though innumerable “school choice” programs have been implemented around theUnited States, none has created a truly free and competitive education marketplace. Existing programs are too small, too restriction laden, or both. To understand how genuine market forces affect school performance, wemust cast a wider net, surveying education systems from all over the globe. The present paper undertakes such a review, assessing the results of 25 years of international research comparing market and government provision of education, and explaining why these international experiences are relevant to theUnited States.
- Topic:
- Education and Government
- Political Geography:
- United States
598. Medical Licensing: An Obstacle to Affordable, Quality Care
- Author:
- Shirley Svorny
- Publication Date:
- 09-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- In the United States, the authority to regulate medical professionals lies with the states. To practice within a state, clinicians must obtain a license from that state's government. State statutes dictate standards for licensing and disciplining medical professionals. They also list tasks clinicians are allowed to perform. One view is that state licensing of medical professionals assures quality. In contrast, I argue here that licensure not only fails to protect consumers from incompetent physicians, but, by raising barriers to entry, makes health care more expensive and less accessible. Institutional oversight and a sophisticated network of private accrediting and certification organizations, all motivated by the need to protect reputations and avoid legal liability, offer whatever consumer protections exist today. Consumers would benefit were states to eliminate professional licensing in medicine and leave education, credentialing, and scope-of-practice decisions entirely to the private sector and the courts. If eliminating licensing is politically infeasible, some preliminary steps might be generally acceptable. States could increase workforce mobility by recognizing licenses issued by other states. For mid-level clinicians, eliminating education requirements beyond an initial degree would allow employers and consumers to select the appropriate level of expertise. At the very least, state legislators should be alert to the self-interest of medical professional organizations that may lie behind the licensing proposals brought to the legislature for approval.
- Topic:
- Government and Health
- Political Geography:
- United States
599. A Critique of the National Popular Vote
- Author:
- John Samples
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- The National Popular Vote plan (NPV), introduced in more than 40 states, and adopted by 4, proposes an interstate compact to bring about direct election of the president of the United States. The proposal eliminates states as electoral districts in presidential elections by creating a national electoral district for the presidential election, thereby advancing a national political identity for the United States. States with small populations and states that are competitive may benefit from the electoral college. Few states clearly benefit from direct election of the president. NPV brings about this change without amending the Constitution, there by undermining the legitimacy of presidential elections. It also weakens federalism by eliminating the role of the states in presidential contests. NPV nationalizes disputed outcomes and cannot offer any certainty that states will not withdraw from the compact when the results of an election become known. NPV will encourage presidential campaigns to focus their efforts in dense media markets where costs per vote are lowest; many states now ignored by candidates will continue to be ignored under NPV. For these reasons, states should not join the National Popular Vote compact.
- Topic:
- Politics and Political Theory
- Political Geography:
- United States
600. Two Kinds of Change: Comparing the Candidates on Foreign Policy
- Author:
- Justin Logan
- Publication Date:
- 10-2008
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- The Cato Institute
- Abstract:
- Few U.S. presidential elections have been decided on the basis of foreign policy. For the first time in decades, however, both parties have fielded candidates who have chosen to emphasize their foreign policy views.
- Topic:
- Foreign Policy and Politics
- Political Geography:
- United States